Chapter Ninety-One: Return to the Mountain

Once Solcloud recovered her memories, everything felt like a dream abruptly remembered. Yet since in her previous life she had already attained the state of an Earth Immortal, her state of mind naturally far surpassed that of ordinary people. Being male or female no longer seemed so important, and after walking once more through the mortal world, even the deepest knot in her heart no longer troubled her.

Look, though he was her son, had she not still fallen in love with someone else?

To her, this whole experience had turned out to be an immense blessing. When she next ascended to the peak of Earth Immortal, she would at once be able to sever one of the three corpses, and Golden Immortality would be within reach.

While she sat to one side receiving her memories and advancing her cultivation, Rongling asked about everything that had happened afterward.

Xuanting continued, “After Huayun was redeemed and reincarnated, Liaowu had already gathered enough merit. But because of him, the Heaven-Reaching Mirror split into two, and the path to heaven was sealed. No matter what, no one could ascend.

“So he demanded that Lady Underworld hand over the Heaven-Reaching Mirror. But once she knew that everything had been manipulated by him, how could she possibly grant his wish?

“She hid and wandered everywhere until I awakened. After she had settled your affairs, I hurried off to challenge Liaowu. The rest, you already know.

“I was defeated and also reincarnated. Lady Underworld, gravely wounded, hid here. Fortunately, by combining our strength, the two of us still managed to force Liaowu into another reincarnation.

“But for the sake of his own selfish gain, three out of the four of us were brought to ruin...

“We should never have let him off so lightly.”

“Then that Dean Yu... he is Liaowu? But in his previous life, wasn’t he a Chan cultivator?”

Rongling answered as gently and patiently as ever, his eyes fixed on hers with earnest attention, while Hansu herself looked somewhat evasive.

“Ordinarily, after reincarnation, one’s spiritual roots remain in the same lineage as in one’s previous life. But there are exceptions, like Liaowu. He was an exceptionally intelligent man. Even if he abandoned Chan for the Confucian path, he would still advance faster and farther than most.”

“Then this time, when he tried to abduct Lady Underworld, was it to search her for the Heaven-Reaching Mirror?”

Hansu’s words instantly reminded them both. Xuanting rose at once and hurried to Lady Underworld’s side to search for the mirror.

“It’s not here? Could he already have taken it?!” Xuanting rushed back, ready to storm out and settle accounts with Liaowu, but Rongling stopped him.

“Since he has already reincarnated, he cannot ascend immediately. For the moment, the whereabouts of the Heaven-Reaching Mirror have nothing to do with him. Besides, I trust Lady Underworld would never carry it on her person so casually. Perhaps she stored it somewhere secure. Better to wait until she wakes before deciding anything.”

Xuanted hesitated, then sat back down. “Huaiyin’s spiritual roots are perfectly compatible with Lady Underworld’s. I estimate that within ten years she will wake. It will be well enough to ask her then.”

So it was said, but ten years was no short span. Huaiyin would inevitably remain here for a long time to heal his mother’s injuries. Xuanting too stayed behind, cultivating to strengthen himself while trying to build a bond with a son who did not think much of him. Though Solcloud had stepped out of her heartbreak, that did not mean she meant to renounce all love and feeling; naturally, she was willing to remain as well.

Only Rongling was different. Among the four of them, he had left earliest and returned earliest. He did not need to press himself in cultivation as the others did, nor was he bedridden like Lady Underworld and in need of care.

After spending several days with them, Hansu proposed to leave.

To begin with, only Rongling and Huaiyin truly cared whether she stayed or went, and Huaiyin now had no leisure to spare. Besides, too much had happened all at once; there was too much to learn, too much to sort through. So he did not ask her to remain.

Fairly speaking, Hansu had already fulfilled her responsibility. She had healed Rongling’s injuries and had even, indirectly, helped him find the person he had wished to find. She could already withdraw. What came next lay far beyond her ability, and there was no need for her to stay.

And yet Rongling did not want to watch her go. He understood that this parting might very well become a farewell forever.

Hansu rode her sword through the sea. She had been away from the Realm of Falling Stars for many years now, and on this journey she had seen and learned a great, great deal. Not only had she accomplished the goal she first set out with, she had also resolved the question that had long hung over her heart.

In the end, she truly was only a passerby.

So behind Immortal Roadan there had been a Dean Yu all along. And he had once been a Chan cultivator whose six senses were not pure, one who, for the sake of gathering merit and ascending, had not hesitated to ensnare so many friends. After reincarnation, he had manipulated Immortal Roadan again, all to obtain the Heaven-Reaching Mirror and...

At that thought, Hansu suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Immortal Roadan had said that what Yu Yicong was searching for was the watery-blue necklace around her neck. Yet Rongling and the others had concluded that he abducted Lady Underworld in order to find the Heaven-Reaching Mirror. Did that not mean that the thing around her neck was the Heaven-Reaching Mirror itself?

If the necklace was the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, then could Aunt Ju be its spirit?

Aunt Ju had said she brought Hansu here so that she could prevent the great catastrophe. But if the source of that catastrophe lay with Dean Yu, why had she only told her to watch out for Immortal Roadan? Was it because she feared that if Hansu got too close to Dean Yu, he would discover something amiss and snatch the necklace away?

Should she go back and hand the necklace to Rongling?

“But what if it isn’t?”

“What isn’t?”

The voice that suddenly sounded by her ear made every hair on Hansu’s body stand on end. After all these years of effort, she had at last achieved some real progress; she retreated almost instantly, gripping Suwei in her hand and holding it before herself.

“Immortal Lord? Why are you...?”

The one who had come was actually Rongling. Why had he left as well?

Seeing how guarded she was, Rongling smiled faintly. “There was nothing for me to do there. It so happens I was going back to the Realm of Falling Stars for a look.”

“Oh... I see.” Embarrassed, Hansu lowered the magic treasure in her hand. She looked up at him, wanting to say something, then stopped herself and never spoke the invitation to travel together.

“Since you too are returning to the Realm of Falling Stars, we may as well go together.” Rongling kept his eyes fixed ahead and walked forward at once.

Hansu stood there stunned, her feet refusing to move for a long while.

Though Rongling did not look at her and merely continued on, he could not help pricking up his ears to catch any sound behind him. Only when he heard that soft little “All right,” faint as a mosquito’s hum, did he finally relax.

Why had he chased after her?

Was it because, when she left, her solitary figure had seemed so lonely? Or because from beginning to end she had not looked at him even once before walking away?

Rongling did not know. He only knew that he had to do this. It was instinct, and it was intuition. Perhaps one day he would understand what today’s action truly meant, but for now he wished only to follow the feeling in his heart.

Rongling moved swiftly. Even when Hansu drove her sword at full speed, he could catch up with a single stride of his long legs. On the return trip they encountered none of the upheavals that had marked the way there. The journey passed plain and peaceful, without the slightest twist.

Rongling once again disguised himself as a male Golden Core cultivator and followed Hansu back to her sect.

On the road back, Hansu had already sent word to her parents and friends by jade message talisman. So the moment she entered the mountain gate, she saw Dao Lord Lanhe and Dao Lord Hengbo waiting there.

“Susu! You took so long to come back. Quick, let Mother look at you. Eleventh level of the Golden Core! Senior Brother!” Dao Lord Hengbo seized her daughter’s hand at once, unable to conceal the worry and joy in her eyes.

“I see it already. Let’s return to the peak first. And this is...?” This was the second time Dao Lord Lanhe had seen his daughter bring back a man, and this one was not even the same as last time. Suppressing with great effort all the wild associations rising in his mind, he asked with feigned calm.

Rongling recalled that when he had still been recuperating in the Immortal Palace, he had heard Dao Lord Lanhe urging his daughter to find a Dao companion within the Jade Splendor Sect. Now, noticing the peculiar look in the man’s eyes as he stared at him, he almost wanted to laugh. He did not answer, only turned his gaze toward Hansu, not even sure what he himself was hoping for.

“Uh... he’s a friend. Father, please arrange a cave dwelling for him beside mine.”

Before Hansu had any chance to say another word to Rongling, Dao Lord Hengbo had already whisked her away to examine her condition. Dao Lord Lanhe remained behind, regarding Rongling with a none-too-kind gaze, inwardly rather startled.

He looked every bit like a Golden Core Dao cultivator, and yet his bearing was so calm and restrained that even Lanhe himself could not achieve such composure. Was he concealing his true cultivation?

Though Rongling felt a trace of disappointment, it did not affect him in the least. Along the way, Dao Lord Lanhe tried several times to draw him out, but each attempt was met only with an unfathomable smile, until inwardly the man was in utter turmoil.

Such was the way of cultivators: after only a few days of reunion, some entered seclusion again, others departed once more on their travels. Dao Lord Hengbo, having obtained the Water Spirit Essence Hansu had brought back, was wild with delight and hurried away to begin testing it.

Within the Immortal Palace, the Xintang Lotus Hansu had once tossed inside had finally sprouted a tender shoot. She carefully dug it out and placed it into a ceramic pot she had refined herself from the mud at the bottom of the Hot Spring Lake, filling it with water from the same lake. Then she gave this potted lotus to Dao Lord Lanhe.

Upon receiving the lotus, he could not wait even a moment. He immediately went off to tend and cultivate it with the utmost care, leaving him with no energy at all to concern himself with the wild man his daughter had brought home.

Several decades had passed. Eldest Senior Brother Linqing had already formed his Nascent Soul. Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Sister had both reached Great Perfection of the Golden Core and gone out separately to temper themselves in preparation for the same breakthrough. When Tu Qiqi had formed her core several years ago, Bai Ke formally proposed, and the two became Dao companions.

Everyone had a life of their own, and everyone strove toward their own future. After hearing and seeing so much concerning Earth Immortals, Realm Lords, and all their troubles, Hansu at last gathered in her somewhat restless heart and began helping her parents manage the various affairs of Spirit Mist Peak.

Because Eldest Senior Brother had formed his Nascent Soul, he had become an elder of the sect and could no longer act in place of the peak master. Linyao and Linxiu had gone out traveling, and once they returned they would immediately face the trial of forming the Nascent Soul, where success meant life and failure meant ruin. Thus all miscellaneous affairs fell back onto Dao Lord Lanhe himself. So long had he been bound up in trivial matters that his cultivation had not budged in years.

Now that Hansu had returned, she happened to be able to help her parents free themselves for a time. For her, too, it was a kind of training.

The first matter she took in hand was to inquire into the movements of Su Yunmo’s parents of Spirit Hidden Peak.

It turned out that ever since, at Ji Yan and Zi Huanshan’s Golden Core celebration, a disciple had exposed Su Yunmo’s prison escape, Dao Lord Tuzhan had flown into shame and rage. Treating that daughter as if she were dead, he had not sent anyone to track her.

He had thought that with her temperament, she would not last long outside before running home in tears.

But one year passed, then two, then ten, and still there was not the slightest trace of her. If not for the fact that her soul lamp remained steadily lit, they would almost have suspected she had perished. At last Dao Lord Tuzhan could no longer sit still and secretly dispatched some household servants and disciples to search for her, but they found nothing.

Word was that Dao Lord Tuzhan and Dao Lord Miaozhen intended to go out personally and bring their daughter back.

As for Zi Huanshan, after failing to kill Hansu beneath the sea last time, she had no choice but to slink back to Jade Splendor. Not daring to tell the truth, she hid herself away in a secret ground under the pretext of closed-door cultivation and never emerged again.

Most importantly of all, Yu Yicong had once more shut tight the mountain gates of Flying Star Academy. The academy, which had so grandly reemerged and gathered disciples from all directions, withdrew once again into seclusion. Outsiders offered all manner of speculation about the reason, yet no one could have imagined the truth.

And in complete contrast, the Hall of Heavenly Secrets, closed for several years, opened on the very day Hansu returned.